Get the Terminology Right. Says Stephen Coates, Occidental Communications Pty Ltd

Once upon a time, a troop of army cadets who had finished their basic training was paraded in front of an audience including many proud parents. After two such parents had pointed out their respective offspring to the other, one commented that Johnny, the other parent’s son, was not marching in time with the others. To this, Johnny’s mother responded “Johnny isn’t out of step with the army, the army is out of step with Johnny ”.

The communications and call centre fields are awash with a plethora of technologies , each with their own subset of the myriad of terminologies keeping up with which requires the erstwhile practitioner to spend almost as much time as is required for the technologies themselves.
 

Commercial IT Research isn’t Always What it Seems, by Stephen Coates, Occidental Communications Pty Ltd

There are between 50 and 75 companies around the world whose primary business is conducting business research and selling commercial research services and reports within the broad domain of IT. They range in size from very small to large, they operate according to a number of business models and they provide very different types of research.

Some specialise in technology and product category uptake forecasts with an emphasis on accuracy. Product developers will spend €5,000 for such reports of no more than 20 pages because these numbers, which they trust to be definitely researched and accurate, will be used to guide them on investments of perhaps millions of Euros.
 

Getting serious about customer service. By Lior Arussy, president, Strativity Group

Over this past year Strativity Group, conducted a worldwide study around customer experience management. Through our worldwide seminars we managed to meet hundreds of customer service and marketing executives and had the opportunity to study their challenges and issues. Our study discloses some serious discrepancies between perception and realties that require immediate attention among corporations who care to build lasting relationships with their customers and to deliver differentiating and premium products and services. In the next few articles we will cover, in depth, several of the major findings of the study.

Call recording - The difference between an ordinary sell and an up-sell. The opinion of Robert Wint, EMEA marketing director, Verint Systems

Call recording and analytics is fast becoming big business. It is enjoying an unprecedented level of attention in contact centres where managers from a broad cross section of industries are recognising the enormous implications it can have for improving standards of quality by recognising and addressing both agent and operational weak spots. But, more specifically, it’s starting to make its mark in an area where typically businesses notice it most - in sales.As the methodologies and software used for call recording and quality constantly evolve, so too do we see contact centres in the retail sector reporting a notable rise in the opportunity for ‘up-selling’ and ‘cross-selling’, all brought about since the implementation of this technology.

‘Planning For Experience Excellence - Achieving Business Success’. The analysis of Lior Arussy, president, Strativity Group

As a new year is upon us, companies are getting ready for the next round of strategic and operation planning. On the horizon are more aggressive sales targets and expectations of growth and profitability. Costs will be attacked with a vengeance in the name of ultimate efficiency. Racing toward the ultimate competitive organisation, the optimistic state of mind that is dawning on businesses around the world will be translated primarily into aggressive growth demands rather than planning for success.

’Will Performance Management liberate contact centre managers?’ By Donna Fluss, principal, DMG Consulting

Corporate respect for the role, purpose and contribution of contact centres is increasing as senior executives recognise the positive impact they have on the bottom line and the tremendous value of customer data flowing through the contact centre. The race is now on to align the contact centre with corporate goals, after spending decades keeping service organisations as far away from senior decision makers as possible. But this won’t happen unless contact centre managers get new tools to capture and share departmental and customer data and insights with their constituents in operations, sales, marketing, product development and the executive suite and to meet their own reporting needs.

‘Speech Technology is Ready For Prime Time!’ The analysis of Donna Fluss, Principal, DMG Consulting

Congratulations speech market – you’ve finally made it to prime time. It took 20-plus years, millions of euros in investments and many false starts, but there is no longer a question about the viability or need for speech-enabled solutions. But you don’t have to take my word for it, or the assurance of any other analysts, as many of us have been saying for years that this market is primed to take off. Predictions of great growth are still out there – Dataquest recently pronounced that the global voice business market will grow from €570 million in 2002 to €2,700 million in 2008.

`Growth Strategies through customer interactions: customers and employees as growth engine`. The opinion of Lior Arussy, president, Strativity Group

As the global economy is slowly picking up, companies large and small are facing a similar challenge: growth. Following years of aggressive lay offs and cost cutting, companies are now seeking new growth vehicles in the form of innovations and new sales revenues. The only source of new revenues is the customer. The problem is that the customer was very much out of focus during the crusade to slash costs.

‘Call centre offshore outsourcing: Poland’. The analysis of Marian J. Kostecki, consultant, Masterplan

The last couple of years have witnessed a great boom in offshore outsourcing. Since 1996 American companies have been setting up call centres in India, the Philippines, the Caribbean and Canada. The main reason is to cut personnel costs. So what are the chances that call centres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will look to Poland to do the same on a large-scale? The truth is that if we assume that staffing costs account for 60 to 70 per cent of the cost of running a call centre then any reduction in these costs would have a direct impact on a company's bottom line.

The intimate connection between customer satisfaction and ROI. By Donna Fluss, Principal, DMG Consulting

Customers choose to do business with companies that provide the products and services they need and deliver an outstanding experience. Customers expect excellent service and will quickly abandon a business relationship when service quality does not live up to their expectations, even when the products are adequate. Companies must find ways to satisfy increasingly demanding customers while decreasing their own operating costs and improving profit margins. Speech recognition is the most compelling form of self-service for companies large and small because it’s satisfying for customers and cost effective for enterprises.